Sunday 23rd July. - A nice trip out.

 Depending on the weather Gavin and I had decided to go to a breakfast meet at the East Anglian train museum at Chappel in Essex. Well the weather was looking ok'ish, so we took a chance. 

Peter Silk text me early to see if I was up to anything, so he ended up coming along with us as well. It was a good drive up there, but we made sure to turn off at Kelvedon and cut through to avoid the dreaded A12 closure at Marks Tey. 

We arrived and took our places in the line up before heading for the cafeteria for a coffee and a bacon sandwich. There weren't many cars there, (Probably due to the threatened rain) but there was still a good selection. 

The museum, although small is really good and is in keeping of how it would have been all those years ago. There's also some vintage trains there as well that you can sit in and have your breakfast. It also has its original ticket office, waiting room and WH Smith book stall. 

It was a very good morning and I also got to meet fellow Cortina Mk1 owner John Wade and see his lovely Cortina GT. He's a nice bloke is John and he gave us some tickets for another show in Colchester in early August. (Let's hope the A12 isn't shut that weekend!)

Around 12pm we made a move as it looked like the heavens were about to open. We had another clear drive home and Peter and I had a lovely cup of tea at mine before he headed home. All in all, a very enjoyable morning. 

Saturday 22nd July - The new pump has arrived!

Gavin came round the morning as we needed to do a couple of little tests on the Triumph. For some reason when I take the spark plugs out I am finding the the front three are Grey and the back three are black. Now this could be a sparking issue, or a metering unit issue. We started off by testing the spark to see if it was weak on the last three cylinders, but all was fine. We did find the the ignition coil wasn't running as efficiently as it could be, so that was replaced as well. 

We then went for a thirty mile test drive to see if we had made any difference. We hadn't. It looks like I will have to persevere with the metering unit and talk to some experts on Monday. 

Gavin left around lunch time, so I decided to crack on with my Zetec Cortina. The new pump and filters had arrived, so I took to fitting them. I decided to leave the original set up as it was, but also add another fuel filter before the pump. This was a Vauxhall Vectra 3.0i filter as it can cope with the high pressure. 

I couldn't get the job finished as I am still waiting for an inline on/off tap to be delivered, but I did get the pump and the two filters mounted, so it wont take me long to finish when the tap does arrive. 

Tuesday 18th July. Zetec fuel pump removal.

This morning my aim was to remove the electric fuel pump from the Zetec Cortina. I hadn't been happy with some of the noises I had been hearing from it lately and I was looking to replace it. 

It had been mounted under the boot floor on the drivers side by a previous owner, so for ease of access, I jacked the rear of the car up onto axle stands to give me more access. It didn't prove too awkward to get to and with twenty minutes I had it all removed. 

It turned out to be a Bosch fuel pump and had a Mann fuel filter placed after it! I would have put the filter before the pump myself as it would catch any crap that might be in the tank before it goes through the pump, not after. 

Anyway, with both removed, I was able to get the part numbers and order replacements. Job jobbed! 

Sunday 16th July - Battlesbridge breakfast meet.

 The threatened stormy weather for this weekend never happened, so I decided to have a drive out to the Battlesbridge breakfast meet. 

I decided to take the Green Cortina as I wanted to see if the new shocks on the rear had got rid of my 'banging' whenever I hit a pot hole. To my disappointment it hadn't. However, after looking at the car closely underneath, you can see that the exhaust is actually touching the axle, so this must be causing the banging I'm getting. I've never been happy with this one-piece homemade bodge of an exhaust and to an extent it has always ruined the driving experience with its constant 'klanking', so it's now booked in to have a new stainless steel system made next month.

Anyway, I had arrived at the show quite early. (I couldn't remember if it started at 8am or 9am) I was on site at 8.30am and was given a spot on the front row. (Between a modern Porsche and modern Mercedes!)

Good friends Gavin and Peter Silk arrived shortly after and we had a pleasant morning walking round the cars. Not a bad show, but a bit too much modern stuff is creeping in. There also wasn't the numbers that there normally is either. Maybe the threat of rain put people off. (Or maybe people are getting fed up of all the modern crap!)

Around 11am Gavin and I had seen enough, so we made tracks. A good morning out though and the weather was good too. 

Thursday 13th July - New Tyres for the Triumph

 I had to take a small diversion to work today as I had a 'fitting' booked at P&J Tyres at Wickford. The Triumph was in need of a new pair of Kumo's and it would also give me chance to test the car after my recent bout of 'fiddling'. The fitting was booked for 10am and they got me in promptly and had the tyres fitted in no time.

This allowed me a bit of free time before work, so I was able to give the car a bit of run. The recent changes I've made have now given me a completely smooth drive right up to 90mph. (I mean 70mph officer!) 

It's getting very close to being where it needs to be now, this car and its becoming a pleasure to drive again. About bloody time! 

Wednesday 12th July. New shocks!

 I had nothing to do this morning before work, so I thought I'd make use of the free time and fit the new Spax shock absorbers fitted to the Green Cortina. 

It doesn't take long and the hardest bit is reaching into the boot to get to the shock tops. The Cortina has a massive boot space and the shock tops are right up near the back seats. 

Before too long though, they were in place and I lowered the car back down onto the ground ready to test drive. This probably wont be until Sunday at the moment though as the Triumph will be coming out tomorrow to have two new tyres fitted and then hopefully going up to Colins on Saturday for more laptop tuning on the 123 Distributor. I think there is a breakfast meet at Battlesbridge this weekend, so I'll probably take the Green Cortina there. 

Monday 10th July. Shopping day!

 My first port of call this morning was to Gaz at Basildon to return the leaking shock absorber. (Again!) They were good as gold as usual and said they would give me a ring when they had investigated and repaired it. This is good service, but it's a pain in the arse having to keep removing the shocks and taking them back all the time. So, feeling frustrated I made the trip to Burton Power products at Gants Hill to see if they sold an alternative. 

They did indeed have an alternative which are made by Spax. They were quite a reasonable price and they had some in stock as well, so I decided to buy a pair. I can always put the Gaz ones on the Zetec Cortina, or just keep them as spares. (Once they've repaired the leaking one of course)

Sunday 9th July - More investigations!

 I was going to have a gardening day today, but I kept being interrupted by rain showers every hour or so, so I admitted defeat and went into the garage instead.

The recent banging from the back of the Green Cortina whenever I hit a pot hole was enough to force an enquiry. My initial suspicions of it being the gearbox mount proved to be unfounded, so I started looking at the rear suspension. I found that the rear shock absorber on the driver side was wet at the bottom, which means its leaking oil. This was particularly disappointing as I've had this trouble before with this shock and had already taken it back to Gaz shocks in Basildon who had repaired it. I couldn't quite make out where it was leaking from though, but I suspected somewhere near the bottom as the mounting bolt was wet. 

So, I wiped the bolt and the bottom of the shock completely dry and left the shock absorber stood up horizontally all day to see what would happen. 

I went back to it later that night and removing the bolt found it wet again. So the shock is definitely leaking! Looks like another trip to Gaz then. Not impressed! 

Saturday 8th July - A few outstanding jobs.

 Taking part in the recent Club Triumph Coast to coast rally had highlighted a few little jobs that needed doing on the Triumph. Annoying things such as squeaky brakes, an exhaust rattle and a small vibration at the front wheels.

The first job to do was to get the Triumph up on axle stands. Slowly and thoroughly I worked my way through the above list and one by one resolved all of the issues. 

I then moved the Triumph out of the garage and got the Zetec Cortina in as I had to check the gearbox oil again now that the car had been driven. This didn't take long, but it did play up a bit when I drove it round the block and the electric fuel pump was making funny noises as well, so this will have to be investigated at some point in the near future. 

With these two cars done I then pulled the Green Cortina into the garage for more investigation work. I had taken it to work on Friday and found that I still had a banging noise on the rear whenever I hit a pot hole, which was a lot! (Our roads are atrocious at the moment!) I'm wondering if the gearbox mount has collapsed?

By now though it was late in the afternoon, so I just got the car up on axle stands and called it a day.

Sunday 2nd July - New brakes discs.

 Due to working on the Triumph most of the day yesterday, I didn't get a chance to fit the new brake discs on my daily driver Renault Clio, so this became the priority job for today.

I decided to let the neighbour's have a lie in and so didn't start making any noise until 10am. I started with the drivers side as I had already removed all of that side previously when Euro Car Parts delivered the wrong discs, so I knew everything would come undone easily. Sure enough, it all did and I had the new disc fitted within about 15 minutes. 

The nearside was a bit more of a challenge as the 17mm calliper bolts had to be persuaded to come undone using the bigger ratchet bar and the slider bolts in the calliper needed removing, cleaning and greasing as they had started to seize up. Also, one of the screws that secure the disc to the hub had been butchered, so this had to be knocked round with a hammer and chisel before it started to come undone. Apart from that though, everything else went well and I was done 11.30 am. I then spent an hour in my garage tidying up and putting all my recently used tools away. A good morning's work and I'm now safe in the knowledge that the Clio's brakes are back up to 100% efficiency again. 

Saturday 1st July - Fuel tank change for the Triumph

When I converted the Triumph to Pi, The only fuel tank I could find was a MK1 Pi tank that didn't have an internal swirl pot like the Mk2 Triumph has. I'd had to use the original Mk1 Pi set up which has the external swirl pot. It does the job, but it looks quite untidy and creates quite a bit of extra pipe work. (See below)

Luckily a Mk2 Pi fuel tank had recently come up for sale at a good price, so I snapped it up and promptly sent it away to be chemically cleaned. With the tank returned I then started the process of removing the existing one.

I had wanted to use this car for work a couple of times to run the fuel level down. It still had half a tank of fuel in from the previous weekend when we broke down. The problem was the car still wasn't behaving itself, so I never had the confidence to run it to work. So I had to drain the tank down which took ages. I reckon there was still about eight gallons left it. I used the petrol from it to fill the Zetec Cortina up and have still got three gallons left in cans. With this finally done I was able to remove the tank.

The Mk2 tank was prepared and refitted with the sender unit and all the other bits that I'd had to remove when it was chemically cleaned and to my surprise it fitted in really easily. These can be a bit of a ball ache to fit sometimes, but luckily and unusually, it slotted in first time. 

I then fitted the Mk2 fuel pump bracket and the PRV and readjusted all of the pipework. I've still got to have a couple of new pipes made up just to neaten it up a bit more, but for the time being, it's a lot better than it was. I really need to paint the boot floor as well, but that can wait until the job is finished properly and I know that the new system is leak free.